Hitcase started off as somewhat of a niche product in the active sports market. Their PRO line was a hit with weekend warriors but when it came to everyday users it was just too bulky. Their fans sought a slim waterproof case that could fit in their jeans and transition from Monday to Friday straight into their weekend adventures. Resisting the urge to go with a trimmed down “me too” “Lifeproof” style case,we worked with their design team to re-invent the category and came up with the SHIELD.

The SHIELD is a fully waterproof case with a machined aluminum base that is a sleek everyday case that is ready for adventure. Even though it took longer to get the product extension to market, the SHIELD’s design with be synonymous with the “rugged cool” branding that Hitcase has developed.

You don’t often think of the US market as “international”, but as a Canadian brand it was a foreign market to Hitcase. We didn’t assume that Hitcase would automatically translate to the US and therefore we leveraged multiple relationships in both retail and distribution to see how hitcase would play in this market. With our findings, we built a regional and channel focused go to market strategy that maximized the opportunity.

We didn’t stop there. In fact, we are in the process of performing due diligence in the Western European market to create a strategic plan of attack based on our relationships and experience in those regions. As a result of these strategic initiatives, US business has grown by triple digits over the past several quarters and we project that the European business will equal that of Canada by early 2017.